NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Villagers in Non Thai district have called for urgent government action after a narrow road linking five villages was widened, leaving a bottleneck one-way bridge.
The railings have been removed from the narrow bridge and it is poorly marked, and there have been accidents there.
The villagers said the problem arose after a 2.3-kilometre road linking five villages in tambon Banlang was widened to two lanes. The work was completed in September last year. The bridge crosses an irrigation canal and is only 3 metres wide.
When the road widening was finished, the bridge railings were dismantled. Without the railings, the bridge became extremely dangerous to vehicles passing over it, especially at night. The only warnings are a pair of orange rubber cones placed at each end.
The tambon Banlang municipality, which carried out the road widening work, said it had submitted a request to the Royal Irrigation Department for permission to widen the bridge at a cost of 500,000 baht, to the same size as the road. There had so far been no response.
Once permission is obtained, the bridge would be widened, a municipal official said.